A nice photo Elizabeth took while visiting us in July
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| Donkey's carry water too, but in a tire bladder |
For a village in Africa, a water project often involves building a well, installing a pump, and setting up a program of maintenance with the village water council.
In some countries with remote villages, the water project might involve laying pipe, installing pumps, and building storage tanks to establish a water supply to the village.
In yet other communities that have an existing water distribution system, the project takes on the flavor of helping those too poor to pay the cost of a connection a way to afford a water connection anyway. Cape Verde falls into this last category.
Getting water is a community event in Salamansa where everyone is in the same dry boat (photo credits to Elizabeth)
In all cases having clean water readily available frees people from the often time consuming, daily routine of getting water from some source, possibly of questionable quality. Water is life, it is sanitation and health, it is essential. Having a faucet in every home has become almost a mantra for politicians in Cape Verde, and no doubt other countries.
Most of us from developed countries never think twice about turning on one of the many faucets in our home and enjoying a plentiful supply of clean, drinkable water. We freely spray it on large landscapes, then wash our cars, our dogs, and our sidewalks with it.
But for many others in our 21st century world, having water in their home just to drink, do basic cleaning, bathing, and maybe flushing or emptying a toilet, is a dream or a daily nightmare.
We have written in the past about our water project for our own island of São Vicente. We are pleased to finally be able to report that close to 100 families now have running water. By the time we are done, hopefully in less than a year from now, close to 600 homes will be enjoying daily water from a faucet in their home, at much better prices than they pay now to haul it home in buckets on their heads.
Signing São Vicente project contract
As we have pointed out, the São Vicente project was created by Elder and Sister Goff starting almost two years ago. That gives you some sense for the timescale and a little of the challenge of setting up such projects.
As we have also pointed out, we are in the process of creating our own water project from the ground up on the island of Fogo. Water projects are one of the five types of major humanitarian initiatives promoted by LDS Humanitarian Services, sometimes referred to as LDS Charities.In this posting we provide an anatomical guide to water projects to help you appreciate and maybe enjoy with us a little of the experience of developing a new water project. Water projects represent probably the largest humanitarian effort of our mission.
For a successful water project you need:
- a source of clean water
- a way to move it to where water is needed
- someone to identify who needs help getting water
- a plan to help the recipient help themselves
- a supply of pipes and fittings to make the final connection
- contractors to do the work the recipient can’t do
- LDS Charities to pay the contractors, and
- donors who support what LDS Charities is doing
- Water project manager in Salt Lake City who oversees these projects globally
- Short-term specialists who come and work side by side with missionary couples to help develop their project, in our case Elder and Sister (Tom and Jill) Blotter from Smithfield Utah.
- Area Welfare Specialists and Welfare Manager who work with the missionary couple and Area Presidency to support and approve the project
The Mighty Foursome – with our Water Project Specialists – Tom and Jill
So lets look at the makeup of this water project for Fogo.
Fogo is a volcano. It has the right geology to funnel fresh rain water from the rainy season into deep springs that provide ample water from wells for the needs of the island. In this picture taken next to a couple of the wells we are looking down 200 meters to the ocean where natural springs continually flow into the ocean changing the color of the ocean water due to sweet water growth. Their wells tap into these flows.
Wells are drilled into these underground flows then pumped up to where the water is needed in towns and villages, generally in steps of 200 meters. Here is a pumping station where the outflow of several wells are combined.
On the left is a well housing. On the right are the pumps.The flow empties into a manmade storage reservoir up the mountain. If needed, another pumping station moves it up another 200 meters to a second reservoir. Homes and other customers who sit below these reservoirs receive their water by gravity flow from the reservoir. Larger regional reservoirs serve the larger population centers and provide feed to other reservoirs.
The highest reservoirs will be over 1000 meters above sea level. The water utility company, Aguabrava, is in the process of building he basic water system to pump water into the higher zones around the island. With the growth in the water system they are adding up to 15 new wells around the island to make sure there is enough water for everyone. Most of the people we will help live in these higher zones that up to now have not had a water network.
Partners
As with all our projects, selecting the right partners is crucial. Our partners know the territory and have the skills to deliver the service. Often they will know who the needy people are. If not, we might go to another partner for that knowledge.
Meeting with two of our partners – Aguabrava and the County of Santa Catarina
With water projects, we look to the local government to identify those with the greatest needs. That is part of their
job, to know their constituents. For the technical knowledge of water systems, proper piping and connections, and providing reliable service to customers, we look to the water utility. For Fogo it is Aguabrava (Wild Water).Some customers may question the reliable service capability of their utility, but the utility can always point to factors beyond their control to explain water outages, that can be frequent.
For our Fogo project our principle partner for the whole project is Aguabrava, the water utility. This “company” is owned by the four local government entities that it serves, but was created to be financially and operationally independent of them. We have worked closely with the director, who has been very open and extremely helpful. He has helped us develop the basic financing formula that we have taken to the three county governments. We are impressed with and trust the leaders of Aguabrava.
A group photo with both our partners in Mosteiros, the County Government rep next to Janet, and the two blue shirts on the right from the Mosteiros Aguabrava office
Our government partners are the three local “county” governments that cover the island of Fogo. (The fourth county is on the nearby island of Brava where better than 90% of the homes already have water connected.) They are Santa Catarina, Mosteiros, and São Filipe. The needs, geography, and state of water supply is different within each, so the project will look somewhat different from one county to the next.
Hillside homes in Mosteiros without water
The Contract
All our major projects require a contract between the Church (or LDS Charities, the Humanitarian Services arm of the Church) and our partners. The contract clearly defines the common objectives of the partners in the project, lays out the responsibilities of each partner, establishes payment schedules and project schedules, and covers all liability and other issues that lawyers worry about.
Getting the contract drafted, reviewed at a couple of levels, translated, reviewed with local legal council, presented to the partners for their review, revised, and finalized is critical to the start time for the project. For our project in São Vicente this took three to four months. We hope to get a jump start by building off what we did in São Vicente and apply lessons learned.
Paying for it
You might think this is our job, and yes, we are the primary financer of the project, but we look for ways to share the cost and get financial participation from the partners and the beneficiaries. As a result of this cost sharing, we will pay about half the total cost.For our Fogo project, the beneficiary will pay only half the normal contract price. This value is not insignificant for a poor family of subsistence farmers, but Aquabrava allows them to spread it over 5 years which makes it quite doable.
By cutting the cost in half for the beneficiary, Aguabrava is participating in the cost. The county governments have also agreed to contribute a percentage of the remainder. The Church is contributing the largest share, but the other shares are each significant and keeps our cost per beneficiary in an acceptable range.
The Beneficiaries
This family now has water in their home thanks to donors throughout the world. The young man on the far right is Elton, our project site monitor.
The primary purpose of a water project is to help the needy get water. We help them help themselves to water to improve their health, quality of life, and allow time for more productive activities, including improved family life. In this project we also contribute to establishing an improved water infrastructure for the whole community.
The beneficiaries are not necessarily the minority in some of these communities. The community may be one of largely subsistence farming. These farmers work hard but have limited cash to pay for extras such as a water connection.
These three water carriers will be freed from this daily task to pursue other opportunities in their lives
In other areas of Fogo the beneficiaries are distinctly poorer than their neighbors. They may not have electricity nor water nor a bathroom. Getting water will be a big step towards other improvements needed.
Our Fogo water project will provide nearly 1000 poor residents an opportunity to bring water into their homes to a basic faucet. Around two dozen of these beneficiaries will be kindergarten or elementary schools that currently have no tie into the public water system. The school districts are among the poorest members of the community.
Doing the Work
The beneficiaries will help pay for the project, as pointed out above, but will also help do the work of the project. Much of the labor needed is to dig trenches from the water network to the beneficiary’s dwelling. Most beneficiaries can do this work as part of their contribution. All the specialized labor, laying and connecting the pipes, will be done by or under the supervision of Aguabrava.
Many of the opportunities to connect people up with water on Fogo is made possible by recent or yet to be built extensions to their water grid. All three counties have significant areas that don’t yet have water piped into their neighborhood. You may recall that in most areas the work requires more than just laying pipe. They also need to put in pumping stations and enclosed reservoirs that gravity feed to these additional neighborhoods.
The Village Association is building this water storage reservoir to serve the home right below it. They are a group of beneficiaries that will also do the work of trenching for the connections to their homes and the homes of those unable to do this type of work.
This work is planned and developed by Aguabrava, paid for in many instances by countries that provide foreign aid to Cape Verde, and built largely with labor provided by neighborhood associations. Our project will not build the basic water grid, only connect needy families to the existing or newly expanded grid financed by others.
Hygiene Training
We use the term hygiene training to capture a whole set of messages and awareness trainings we offer to beneficiaries of the project. This “training” is done by women trainers we hire from the local Church units. We help them develop the content for presentation along with handouts and visual aids. Then they meet the beneficiaries, set up group sessions, and lead an interactive discussion to cover the materials.
The content of the awareness training does include some talk about hygiene, protecting the water supply in the home, and general sanitation. It also addresses the concerns of our partners for saving water, being responsible for water used, paying your bills, and living safety with water.
When the water is hooked up and flowing, the trainers also present the family with one or more hygiene kits to encourage usage of the water for better personal hygiene. These kits contain towels, soap, combs, toothbrushes and toothpaste for up to four people. For larger families we will provide additional kits. The beneficiaries are always very grateful for this extra gift from Church members.
Our trainers also represent the Church and put a face on the Church as one of the principals of the project. We are not concerned about getting credit as much as we want our friends to know that we are here and why we do what we do.
Closing the Project
Major projects such as a water project can create a lot of good will for the Church and by the Church. We use opening or closing ceremonies to bring the partners and beneficiaries together to celebrate the progress these projects represent.For water projects, the closing ceremony signals the end of the work and the beginning of the benefits. For our projects, the benefits come much sooner for the first recipients as the work is done in phases and the beneficiaries of the first phase will be months ahead of those at the end.
This is more of an opening ceremony for our São Vicente project, but it reflected the spirit of cooperation to serve the needy we want to close with
Still we can all celebrate together the fruits of our partnership and common desire to help the less fortunate enjoy the blessing of water in their own tap.
Janet and I have yet to participate in a Closing Ceremony. Chances are we will not be able to participate in one for our Fogo project, but the next couple will.
Have a big drink of water and think of the simple blessing it represents.
